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package com.sun.ejb.spi.sfsb.util;

/**
 *
 * An instance of this class will be used by the Stateful SessionBean 
 *  Container to create sessionIDs whenever home.create(..) is called
 *
 * @author Mahesh Kannan
 */
public interface SFSBUUIDUtil {
    
   /**
    * Create and return the sessionKey.
    * @return the sessionKey object
    */
    public Object createSessionKey();
    
   /**
    * Called from the Container before publishing an IOR. The method must convert the sessionKey into a byte[]
    * @return A byte[] representation of the key. The byte[] could be created using serialization.
    */
    public byte[] keyToByteArray(Object sessionKey);
    
    /**
     * Return the sessionKey that represents the sessionKey. This has to be super efficient as the container
     *    calls this method on every invocation. Two objects obtained from identical byte[] must
     *    satisfy both o1.equals(o2) and o1.hashCode() == o2.hashCode()
     * @return the sessionKey object
     */
     public Object byteArrayToKey(byte[] array, int startIndex, int len);    
    
}